2nd Story: Storytellers: H

Don Hall

Guest Director // Don Hall is the Founding Director of Chicago's WNEP Theater and the Events Coordinator for Chicago Public Radio and NPR's "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!" Having directed, acted, improvised, taught and produced Off Loop Theater for the past twenty years, Hall has just started learning. The creator of WNEP's annual SKALD Storytelling Competition, he is no stranger to the art of spinning a yarn.

Kyle Harmon

Originally from St. Louis, MO (Go Cardinals!) Kyle Harmon attended his first professional baseball game at Busch Stadium around the age of 5. While his body may have matured since then…he has not. He has been seen doing a celebratory dance every time the Cardinals make it to the World Series. The first sighting of this dance was in 1982 and then again in 1985, 1987, and 2004. The most recent dance sighting was in October of 2006 at a dive bar on Milwaukee and Lawrence. Some say that was the best damn celebration dance anyone has ever seen. If you ask him nicely he might do it for you.

Ames Hawkins

Ames Hawkins is a tenured faculty member in the English Department at Columbia College Chicago. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric from Wayne State University, an M.A. in Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University and an AB in American Culture from The University of Michigan. As a result of this over-education, Ames publishes in both creative and academic realms, and teaches creative nonfiction, first year writing and cultural studies. Besides writing, sites of pleasure include golf, microbrewed beer drinking, and thoughtful conversation.

Lott Hill

Lott Hill received his Masters degree in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago, where he works as the Associate Director for Civic Engagement in the Center for Teaching Excellence. He is the co-founding co-editor of Sleepwalk Magazine and a teacher of Creative Writing, Poetry, and community-based learning and Service-Learning classes. Lott’s fiction, poetry, and nonfiction has appeared in multiple issues of Hair Trigger, Columbia Poetry Review, Fish Stories, B-City, Metropolitan Universities, The Spoon River Poetry Review, AdBusters, and Demo.

Debbie Hogan

Using humor and storytelling to teach the uninteresting to the uninterested, Debbie performs five times a day (no cover charge) for the toughest of all audiences—inner city high school students. Armed with the support of her husband John and engineer daughter Holly, she continues to develop herself as a writer and performer. Last spring she performed in the avant-garde show “Lying at Attention” and did some street performing with the show last summer. She plans to spend part of this summer living in Antibes, France, continuing her work on a short story anthology, her first novel and an account of her ten years as a Chicago Public School high school teacher. She appreciates the opportunity to be a part of 2nd Story for a second year and thanks everyone for everything they have given her.

Varris Holmes

Varris Holmes is very happy to be performing with 2nd Story. Varris is a sometime teaching artist, writer, singer and actor here in Chicago and has taught for several awesome local companies including Lookingglass Theatre, Free Street Programs and About Face Theatre. He is also a former company member of HealthWorks Theatre and occasionally does solo performance work around town. Varris also spends much of his time (the Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 part) extolling the many virtues of coffee for Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters, (who just allowed him to go on an amazing trip to El Salvador) so please drink some.

Carly Huegelmann

Carly Huegelmann has freelanced for local suburban newspapers. She has produced Sketch Comedy for Second City and Chicago SketchFest. She holds a bachelor's degree in Fiction Writing and is near completion of her MFA in Creative Writing. She's been published in The Story Week Reader and Chicago Parent. She’s an organizer and regular reader for the reading series RUI: Reading Under the Influence. She is currently working on the completion of her manuscript. She is an ESL Consultant and Teacher. She volunteers for C.A.R.E., a global organization fighting poverty worldwide. Her daughter, Ryanne, is her inspiration.

Fannie Hungerford

Fannie Hungerford is a native of South Carolina and has been living in Chicago for over 4 years. As an actor she has performed with TimeLine Theatre, the House Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Caffeine Theatre, Reverie Theatre, and most recently, The Building Stage. This year she will be performing, training, and creating at the Building Stage-a company you should know about. Fannie’s also a dancer and choreographer, loves food and friends, is learning the cello, and is slowly beginning to think of herself as a writer.